Good Intentions
by spankingfemfatale
Summary: Takes place at the end of the movie The Full Monty. Stripping may have gotten Gary the money he needed to fix his monetary issues for the time being, but something still has to give if he's going to get on the right path to be a good dad for Nathan. Mandy gets an unexpected suggestion that just might do the trick! My plot, my hubs lovely words! WARNING! Contains non-sexual spanking


Gary glanced around with a forlorn expression on his face. It was cold as he was wet, and he shivered a bit in the brisk night air. All around him people hurried about; the police who had been called in when they had been discovered and of course the nosy tenants and grumpy hotel owners who had reported them in the first place.

He had figured perhaps people could understand that not everyone could afford a pool, and it wasn't like anyone else was using it… Gary sighed as he saw Mandy walk over, shrugged at her angry look as she approached, "How was I to know they would involve the police?"

Mandy had her hands on her hips and her expression bordered on annoyed, "If it was you I wouldn't have cared, but you brought our son into this. Why can't you just have brought him back to us before running off to get yourself into trouble?"

Their son, Nathan, sat off to the side also wrapped in a towel, and waved at his mother as she pointed at him. Gary frowned, "I couldn't have known it would come to this, we'll avoid swimming here in the future, I promise."

Mandy shook her head, "No… there won't be a future; this is going to be his last visit."

Gary's face dropped as he followed her, since Mandy had begun to take her leave, "Wait! You can't just take him away from me over something this stupid!"

Many half-laughed, turning to give him a reproachful look, "Oh, then how stupid should the incident be, then?"

"He's my son, and I just wanted him to be able to take a swim if he wanted to, I didn't do any less than any other dad would've!"

Mandy scowled, "Except that I don't hear about other dads involving the presence of police near as often as you! "

Gary waved off the statement, "That's not fair… besides, this was only twice, and the last time was only because I was trying to get the money for support together…"

Mandy was emphatic, "Twice is enough! I don't want this kind of thing being regular to him, I'm sorry, Gaz."

Gary stared at her, a look of desperation entering his features as she turned to leave once more. "Wait, Mandy… I'll… I'll do anything; anything at all to make it up to you, just please don't take my boy from me!"

Mandy sighed as she paused, closing her eyes and trying hard to ignore the pleading tone of his voice. She had given him so many chances and all he ever did was blow them. But despite all of this she still felt a stabbing pain in her heart to hear his desperation.

At last she finally spoke, "Anything, then?"

Gary nodded, "Anything."

Mandy folded her arms across her chest and tapped her finger to her chin in thought, and Gary amended his previous statement, "Only… please don't say I should come work with you in the factory."

She gave him an annoyed look, "How am I supposed to think that you're willing to give a real go at this if you won't even take this opportunity to get onto your feet?"

Gary's hands fell limply at his sides as he looked at her with a pained expression, "I can't hope to ever dig myself out of the hole I'm in if I take that job, Mandy! You work your employees a minimum of twelve hours a day and the pay is wretched… how would I ever be able to better myself then?"

Mandy watched him intently as he spoke, her mouth a tight line. "People manage every day to hold a job while looking for another, Gaz." She sighed and looked off into the distance, "I don't know what to do with you…"

Gary nodded, looking down, "Then give me this break, let me have the hope that I can rise out of this gutter, and don't force me into the glorified slavery your people hold, no offense…"

Mandy frowned at him, "None taken… but don't think I'm gonna let this slide by lightly, I'm gonna come up with a way to get you straight, Gaz." She stared at him a moment more, "Come by my place tomorrow night and I'll tell you what we need to do."

Gary smiled widely, "Oh, thank you Mand! You won't regret it, I promise!"

Mandy gave him a sad look, "Don't thank me yet, I haven't decided what we're doing yet."

########

Mandy watched her fiancé Barry get himself ready for work, in the process of busily tying his tie and retrieving his coat. "I spoke to Gary again about his general… lack of responsibility, and I told him I'd sort out a way to get him straightened out."

Barry glanced over her way with a cynical look, "Really? That sounds… well, impossible. I think Gary is clinically stupid."

Mandy returned his look with an annoyed grunt, "Seriously, I need to figure this out, for Nathan's sake if nothing else."

Barry sighed, pulling on his coat and giving her a sidelong glance as he straightened his tie, "Well, why don't you put him on your lap and spank him, then?"

Mandy laughed along with Barry, but what her fiancé did not see was the look on her face after he had left. She bore an expression of amusement, sure, but also one of deep thought. After all, Gaz did act like a spoiled child most of the time…

Why not?

Gary arrived a while later than he knew Mandy would be happy with, so he shuffled his feet nervously as he waited for her to answer the door, half expecting her to simply slam it back in his face. Not that he wouldn't deserve such behavior for his lateness to such an important meeting…

Mandy opened up after a few minutes, looking at him a moment flatly before urging him inside. Gary hurried in, happy that she was still willing to meet him at all.

Once inside both parties proceeded to stare at each other, awkwardly, neither entirely sure what to say. At last Mandy broke the rather long tenuous silence, setting her jaw as she did her best to look serious and relay conviction, "Gaz, I think it is high time I brought you to council for all the things you've done…"

Gary interrupted, "I knew that this was just going to be another mudslinging! Why can't we focus for a moment on all the good times we've had, and how hard I've worked to keep you both happy…?"

Mandy held up a hand, "Just shut up for a bleeding moment and let me say my mind! Yes there have been good times, Gaz, and that's pretty much the only reason we're still trying to keep you in Nathan's life…"

Gary interrupted again, "'We'? You mean you and Barry, right? Because I know my son will always want me in his life."

Mandy let out a long sigh, "All of us, Gary. Barry wants Nathan to be happy too, so don't go thinking that he's trying to split you up. Even if he was, he'd have good reason…"

Gary offered up a shocked look, "What?"

Mandy scowled at him, "I thought we already went over this! You're a fuck-up, Gaz, and the more I talk to you the more I see it'd take a mighty wake-up call for you to straighten out."

Gary growled and glared at the floor, and Mandy could tell he was drawing away again. She stood up, deciding not to let him think to run out in anger again. "You're more a kid than a man, Gaz. Right now all you can think is 'Oh poor me why does Mand beat up on me like this?' isn't that right?"

He frowned at her, "I didn't say one thing or the other, don't act like you can read my mind."

Mandy smiled at him, "Is that why you can't look me in the eye when you say that? I've known you a long time, Gaz, and at first it was a lot of fun, when we were kids. But you're a dad now and you have to grow up!"

Gary stood up and glared back at her, his hands balled in anger at his sides, "You don't think I'm aware that I've made mistakes?"

Mandy shook her head, "I know you ken what you did wrong, what I need is for you to do something about the results of your actions and do something different!"

Gary took a few moments to gather his cool, breathing steadily as he looked back at Mandy. She was almost enticing him to be mad, but he suspected that it was a test of sorts, to see if he could be mature, "Fine. What do you think need changing?"

Mandy raised an eyebrow, clearly a little surprised. "Good, you didn't storm out the door. That's a start." She moved to sit down on the couch again and composed herself, delivering her intended solution in even tones, "Your attitude is the problem, and after thinking on it for a good while, I've decided you need a good spanking."

He only blinked at her in response for a moment, "What?"

Mandy patted her knee, "I want you to show me that you're willing to pay the piper and lay across my lap. Then I'll spank you until you think better…"

Gary sputtered at her, "You can't be serious? You want to… do me like that, like I was a babe or something?" His expression became lascivious as he looked her up and down, "Is this because you saw me dance? Remembered what you've been missing?"

She blushed but shook her head as she motioned angrily for him to comply, "Nothing sexual about this, Gaz. I'm going to beat your ass and that's all. I'm not going to wait all day for you to submit to this, so either come over here and get yours…"

"Or I can never see Nathan again." Gary finished for her. His expression had sobered, and he seemed indecisive, "You can't seriously mean this… I mean, it's ridiculous…"

If anything Mandy looked even more determined as she gestured again, "Yes, I am, and make your choice, Gaz. Are you so afraid to man up that you would walk forever over this?"

Gary looked torn, "Aw, Mandy, that's not fair…"

Mandy shouted at him, "It's very fair, Gaz! You're lucky this is all I'm asking! Lucky to have yet another chance at all! Fucking choose already, if it's so ridiculous you wouldn't want to draw it out would you?"

He stuttered, "Well no, I… well, I… oh fuck it. Just get it over with then if it'll make you happy…" He continued to complain as he laid himself over her lap on the couch, "…I hope you know you're bonkers, though."

Mandy pulled his pants down with a quick yank and he protested, "Hey! I thought you said this wasn't going to be sexy?"

Mandy glared at him as she pulled him closer to her hips so he wouldn't be able to wriggle away, "This is so it'll hurt more. Quit squirming so much, Gaz, you're acting like a brat!"

Gary's face was flushed as he looked back over his shoulder and saw how he was postured over her lap, "I'd like to see you endure this without a fair amount of annoyance; this is embarrassing! I hope you're getting your kicks off of this, because it's sick!"

Mandy poured her frustration into making her vague idea of what needed doing into something crystal clear. With a sure grip she pulled his belt from his pants, folded it and struck him across both cheeks before he could even register what had happened.

Gary's whole body went rigid and he howled at the unexpected lash, "Yow! I thought you meant with your hand, you sadistic bitch!"

He began trying to wriggle free as Mandy had suspected he would, but after a few moments of tussling on the couch where he nearly won his freedom, she proved victorious in holding him pinned to her lap, locking his arms underneath himself with her free hand as she continued to deliver punishment to his ass.

She was breathing as hard as he was from the exertion, but Mandy pulled on her need to right Nathan's errant father to give herself strength. He was bucking and cursing at her but she didn't waver, "Less than you deserve, you jerk! When are you going to stop being selfish long enough to realize what you're doing to our son!"

Gary cried out desperately under the barrage of his own belt, "I know what I've done, and I told you, I'm sorry! I can do better, I promise, now stop hitting…"

Just then the front door opened and both of them quickly looked to see that Barry had walked in. He simply stood there staring at them, dropping his suitcase on the floor next to him. Gary sputtered, "It's… it's not what it looks like! She's really beating me… oh god…" Gary closed his eyes in shame and sunk his head into the cushions of the couch.

Barry looked to Mandy and she smiled at him sheepishly, "Well I thought about what you said earlier… and I thought it was good advice…"

Gary moaned, looking up, "You told her to do this… you beat me because Barry wanted you to…?"

Barry still looked stunned, "Advise? I was joking! Are you both fucking nuts?! If you didn't know this was inappropriate, you wouldn't have waited until I went to work to start…"

Mandy shook her head as she got up, letting Gary rise from the coach as he groped for his pants, trying to pull them up quickly. "It's not like that; we had planned on meeting about this before… well, maybe not with this in mind, but you know what I…"

Barry rubbed at his temple with his thumb and forefinger, moving up to them as Gary started to rise. He grabbed the other man by the arm and sat down on the couch himself, hauling Gary along with him. Already tripping over his own breeches, Gary fell over Barry's lap with a surprised shout, "What the bloody hell are you doing?"

Barry replied simply as he wrestled the other man into the same position Mandy had, "I might have been joking but Mandy, who knows you better than I do, has decided to go through with it."

Barry began swatting him hard with the flat of his palm and Gary practically screeched, "Then let her do it! What are you, queer? You're putting your hand on my bum!"

Barry gave him an annoyed look and gestured to Mandy, "I'm going to do this, since I don't want my woman anywhere near your naked ass. Take it how you like, but you act like a rotten child, and if feel it'll be less queer for me to hit you with the belt then so be it."

Gary's eyes went wide as Mandy handed him his belt, and he quickly changed his tune, "No, wait…!"

If Mandy had been vicious Barry was that much more relentless, and since the larger man was able to hold the squirming Gary down more easily, he was able to put far more into each swing. Gary had never expected this to sting so much, and the growing feeling of helplessness caused him to panic, "Please, please stop, you're both crazy!"

After Gary had stopped hurling names and screaming obscenities, Mandy steeped up and put a hand on Barry's shoulder, urging him to stop. Barry was panting but seemed deeply gratified with his work, "I'm just getting into it…"

Gary groaned in response, his face hidden in the couch cushion, but Mandy could tell that he had been crying for a while now. "I think we got the message across for now, he'll think about this whenever he sits for a day or two now."

As Barry released him and Gary shuffled off to the side, doing his best to hide his tear-stained face, he grumbled resentfully, "What's…. what's the fucking point of all this?"

Mandy walked over and knelt beside him where he sat on the couch, not letting him hide from her gaze. There was compassion in her features though as he finally met her eyes. "We both know what the point is. Now, you can sulk about it like a babe, or maybe you can think that maybe this is my way of not giving up on you."

Gary only stared at her for a long minute, finally rising stiffly from the coach, his eyes to the floor as he moved to the door. "I'll see myself out."

"Gaz…"

He turned to see Mandy was giving him a wan smile, "Nathan doesn't have to know about this… see you tomorrow?"

Gary glanced down, pausing a moment more before nodding, "…Yeah."

He turned to leave, and Mandy made a wish that maybe, just maybe, she had just made room for change.


End file.
